Part 18 of the Palaververse: The Local Cosmos. Also, art and Thunderstorm. · 12:52am Feb 15th, 2016
Welcome back to the Palaververse, and my apologies for the delay between this post and the last! The major nations have all been covered, which instead leaves whatever miscellaneous elements people are keen to see elaborated. The subject with the most popularity in the comments for the Antlertis post was the sun, moon, and associated bodies. Three guesses as to what's being covered past the page break.
Seriously, though, you're never guessing. It's too subtle.
Before that, though, a couple of things to unabashedly plug. Firstly, I wrote a new thing! Thunderstorm and the Four Winds, a slice of old pegasus folklore from the tribal era, told in nothing but proper fashion by an older pegasus to a younger apprentice. If attempts to mimic classical legends through a Rainbow Dash medium sound like they might be up your alley, then consider giving it a gander and let me know what you think. It draws upon some of the history covered in previous posts, if that's anything like a draw, but not to any extent that remembering said history's necessary to understand the story, if that's likewise a draw.
Secondly, and much more awesomely, the awesome person that is themaskedferret (she proofreads blog posts from time to time, you might have heard of her before) arranged for a piece of a Palaververse artwork to exist! Great kudos goes to the artist, Magello, who probably isn't asked to draw a rhinocerous noble influenced by the fashions of the Orient every day and yet rose wonderfully to the challenge.
It's excellent, I love it, and I can't thank either of the people involved enough. It was a wonderful surprise to receive in Skype chat, and brightened up what had otherwise been a fairly coursework-intensive week.
With nothing else left to be said, read on past the page break at long last to find out what's going on with the world's local cosmos. And if there's any subject you'd like to see covered in the next post, leave a nomination for it in the comments and I'll take it into consideration.
The lands and seas of the world are fractious and wild, host to countless nations and species pulling in opposite directions against any number of enemies. The seas churn with storms and conflict between navies, and the lands are divided by borders and contested by armies and wild beasts and rogue magic alike. A few hard-won pockets of harmony prevail, and seem set to endure - but only a few as yet.
Rise up above them, though, and the open skies offer somewhat more peace. Storms still buffet the world with wind and lightning, and those species with natural or technological means of flight may still find themselves at cross-purposes here, but from up there, the borders between nations become much harder to discern. And when the skies grow calm and the cloud-marbled blue stretches in every direction, it’s not hard to find serenity.
And higher yet, where the air begins to grow too thin to breathe, and higher yet, beyond the flight of any pegasus or corvid or griffon or flying machine as yet constructed, true peace finally presents itself. And there, the stars begin.
Return to earth briefly, just for the purposes of further blethering. Look up into the night sky, and no matter who you are or where you stand in the world, the same sight will greet you. A blanket of stars glitters and stirs in constant, gentle motion against the outer blackness, forming a cloud around the world that extends from the upper atmosphere to the outermost extent of orbit. The silver shape of the moon glides through them, patterned with lunar seas and craters and wreathed in the soft blue magic of Princess Luna. From ancient times until present day, beings have looked up to the night, named its contents in a thousand different languages, spun legends and songs out of what they see there, and - because the world can never have unambiguously nice things — have striven to control it.
Look up into the day sky, and you’ll damage your eyes. The sun blazes its own path through the heavens there, as similarly constant a companion for the world as the moon and stars. A golden aura wields it firmly in its own controlled orbit by Princess Celestia. Between their combined or solitary efforts, the alicorn sisters have kept the sun and moon and stars under control for over twelve hundred years. They assumed the mantle from the old unicorn monarchs, who in turn assumed it from the guiding force exerted by the Antlertean-made Sun Blade. And whether there was anything or anyone controlling it before then, none can say.
All manner of creation myths have arisen to account for the celestial objects, with as many myths arising as there were different communities across the spectrum of tribes. Some called the sun and moon sister-worlds to their own, created as part of a trinity to keep reality as a whole in balance. Others called them the two eyes of the Creator, staring down from afar to observe how the world was faring. Others yet called the sun and moon twin creator-gods in their own right, since fallen out and now in constant hostile pursuit of one another, alternately heating or freezing the world with the passion (or lack thereof) of their endless race.
It wasn’t until the heyday of the Capric Empire that the modern world’s scientific theories about the early history of the celestial objects began to take shape, amidst the universities and scholarly circles that had the freedom, resources, inclination, and time to pursue the subject. The world — which they dubbed Theia — was theirs, after all, and it would only be prudent to know about it. Various expeditions were dispatched into the North to explore sites where the last Fires of Creation in the world were still rumoured to burn, and some of these expeditions even survived the experience. Others sifted through left-behind Antlertean lore, and others yet interrogated unicorn slaves on the off-chance they knew how their tribe’s monarchs might be able to do it. Plans to kidnap any unicorn princes available at the time were even drawn up at various points, and though much never came of these plans, the whole body of research helped the caprids assemble an body of ideas on how the celestial objects — and Theia itself, for that matter — came to be. These ideas were developed as the centuries wore on, with the Equestrians and Asinians and Zebricans largely picking up the reins of research as the Empire fell.
Back in the deepest depths of prehistory, after the universe itself had been born in the first Fires of Creation sparked by some unknown Creator or prime mover, Theia coagulated together from drifting matter and magic. The unimaginably powerful and chaotic nature of the early magic saw the then-molten world shift, fragment, and reform countless times down long aeons in the emptiness of the void, drawing more drifting matter and magic into itself and vomiting yet more out through the fissures and eruptions that consumed the whole world. Most of that ejected matter and magic was sent back out into the void, drifting on to parts unknown. But as the aeons passed and the Fires of Creation gradually calmed, more and more of the matter and magic that was spat out fell back into Theia’s orbit. And for every particle that decided to just fall back down into the volcanic landscape, another stayed in orbit and found itself being pulled towards other particles.
Over time, as the world finally stilled, two great collections of magic-infused satellites took shape, of roughly equal size to the other. The sun took proper form first, a great sphere of blazing magically-empowered plasma that had found its initial blaze fed by every particle fed into its pull. The moon was quick to follow, and its physical matter, while still infused with magic, had failed to ignite in the same manner as the sun. The pair fell into parallel orbits around Theia, and over the emerging seas and continents taking shape on its surface. Those particles which hadn’t been consumed by them or the world, whether flares of pure magic or charged matter or any combination of the two, fell into their own orbits as the first stars.
Magic was still wild in those days, for all that it might have calmed since the very beginning, and the sheer number of unchecked principles within the celestial objects kept them in flux. Their orbits were erratic, and constant eruptions from them seeded the heavens with more stars and battered the young Theia with meteors. Constant storms and unpredictable tidal patterns would have been the norm, and natural selection would have its work cut out for it as early lifeforms struggled to develop and learn to control the world around them.
The first known control by a sapient species eventually came in the form of the Antlerteans, whose first kings reached out and up towards the heavens to try and achieve control over the objects therein. Through unknown means, they succeeded, binding the sun and moon into controlled orbits that made life somewhat easier for the beings on Theia’s surface. This control was embedded into the Sun Blade, the masterpiece blade and royal symbol of the Antlertean kings, and with its power, they went forth to bring the other Antlertean lords to heel. With this success, the Antlertean Era began, and even after it ended under unknown but undoubtedly calamitous circumstances, the Sun Blade endured and passively kept the sun and moon in controlled motion.
This control was usurped in later ages by the unicorn tribe of ponykind, who similarly looked up towards the heavens and were able to take control through their own means. Their own means are likewise unknown and lost to the fog of history, though overall control is speculated to have rested with the monarchs themselves. Their control persisted throughout their history as a tribe and into the first few centuries of Equestria’s existence, before it was rudely taken from them by the chaos spirit Discord. His own mastery was largely distant and extremities-off, aside from those instances where it seemed like it might be funny to turn the sun inside-out for a few minutes or have the moon wander into an unsuspecting tavern, and was taken from him in turn by the current wielders, Princesses Celestia and Luna of Equestria. The magic that allowed them to ascend to alicornhood also allowed them to connect with and usurp direct control over the celestial bodies, control which they were able to keep after overthrowing Discord with the Elements of Harmony.
Whether the celestial objects fell naturally to each princess according to some underlying purview, or whether they were amiably divided between the princesses themselves according to preference is unknown, though Celestia’s own assumption of power over the moon and stars after Luna’s fall to her Nightmare and subsequent banishment leaves the latter a likelier option. The event in question, which left Nightmare Moon contained upon the moon’s surface, also left the silhouette of Luna’s head impressed across the moon’s surface, an impression which was never publicly remarked upon by Celestia. The disappearance of the impression after Luna’s recent return sparked some amount of clandestine debate as to whether the impression had been created by Nightmare Moon to taunt and remind Celestia of her forthcoming return … or whether Celestia had left the impression there herself as a reminder.
The moon itself glides onwards under Princess Luna’s power this day. And while the princess has been reticent about her exact mastery and history with the object, she has been willing to answer a multitude of questions from celestial scholars on the matter, in many cases backing up existing observations taken through ever-improving telescopes. A thin atmosphere exists on the moon; enough to contain some air and to allow for small lifeforms to exist upon it, in the form of rolling fields of silvery grass, luminescent algae in the circular lunar seas, and large-winged umbral moths and various insects . Whether said lifeforms naturally evolved independently on the moon or were transported there by unknown means is a matter over which many hoof-fights have been waged in academic circles, but the fact of their existence persists, and a few specimens have even been granted by Luna for study amongst a select few Equestrian institutions. Star spiders are one such specimen, a breeding population of which were introduced to the world by Luna before her banishment, and which subsequently took up residence in the old royal palace and spread into the Everfree.
The sun, while not quite as accommodating of life as the moon and Theia, still has its own share of marvels. Phoenixes originated in its fiery depths, born and eternally reborn within its sustained flames. Every once in a while, solar flares composed of vast flocks of the creatures burst out from the sun’s surface, and many members of these flocks take flight out amongst the stars or out into the void for parts unknown, keeping the sun’s native population at a sustainable level. Some members of these flocks make their way down to the world below, and can be reborn again for a time by the fires they contain within themselves. Some phoenixes have even been able to form breeding populations within the wilds of Theia, though they inevitably pass on their dwindling inner fire to their offspring as the chicks age. One such phoenix, Philomena, was rescued by Celestia shortly after she assumed sole control over Equestria and kept alive down the centuries by sunfire provided by the princess.
The stars themselves tend to be too small to host anything in their own right, existing as mere bright points of magically-infused matter, periodically reforming, dying, and falling to earth, and with new ones being spat out from the inner turmoil of the sun and moon. The oldest stars tend to be the largest, having taken on their own shapes and hues from assimilating their smaller kin, and have been given their own names by the cultures observing them down the ages. Their malleability and smallness makes them easy to arrange in patterns, depending on the preference of the one controlling them, and the nights since Princess Luna’s return have been especially vivid and creative in their arrangements.
And past the sun and moon and outermost layer of stars, the void of space eventually opens up, and what lies past exists largely in the realms of speculation. Only the most powerful and sophisticated telescopes and observatories have been able to catch glimpses of anything past the endless darkness, and those glimpses have been tantalising. Moving and distant clusters of light have been sighted, believed to be stars around worlds charting their own paths through their void. From afar, great world-sized beasts have been seen swimming through the void as if it was a sea, commonly resembling whales or turtles. Huge points of light hang unsupported, which some unrealistically speculate to be stars so vast that worlds instead orbit them. Clouds of shifting cosmic matter stir and blot out much of the universe on all sides, and what lies past them, none can say. Occasionally, things stir in the darkness with vast and subtle movements, and what has been glimpsed of them has left many astronomers gibbering and future generations of astronomers - with terrible pattern recognition, it must be said - intrigued.
Theia’s a large world, but only a small player on a much greater stage. And past inconceivable gulfs, there are other worlds, and other suns and moons and stars, and perhaps even other beings striving and surviving and struggling for harmony in their own right.
And perhaps one distant day, if and when disharmony becomes only a distant memory, the beings of the world will be able to unite and reach out to them.
Wow.
When you create a universe, you bloody well create a universe.
An excellent addition to an an already excellent series.
My suggestion for the next one is an accounting of known immortals (or creatures that live long enough the difference is academic to most of the population).Perhaps mixed with that a general note on how they fit into the geopolitical climate and/or regard each other.
Should be Nightmare Moon I believe. And thank you for the Phoenix facts!
EDIT: Fixing the bad Quote
Have you covered Tirek and Scorpan's nation yet? They had to have come from somewhere.
3754684
Nomination for immortals and all practical variations thereof noted! That could be very interesting indeed to write about. Glad you approve as well. Though in all fairness, it's not a universe with much meat on its bones past one particular world.
3754708
Fixed, and much obliged! Glad the phoenixes satisfied.
3754742
Antlertis has you covered there in their own entry. Tl;dr - Creations by the Mage Lords, assigned to watch over the prison/dumping ground of Tartarus and contain the experimental abominations and cast-offs left therein.
3754760
Ah, My mistake. I had forgotten.
I for one nominate glory greatest country in the world.
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/conworld/images/5/52/Glorious_Arstotzka.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130911032357
I once again nominate the world of Equestria Girls, in the interest of annoying you.
But I do very much like how this local cosmos entry turned out. Very rich for such a subject. I always appreciate when worldbuilding also looks to what lies outside the world.
Edit: Also, you finally found a name for the world itself that isn't Palaververse! I'm so proud of you. And it's a good one too. Theia. I looked up the origin of that one. Very nice stuff.
3754768
That's not a Palaververse country, silly. Though I suppose if Equestria Girls is taken into account, then Capra needs some sort of bipedal ape analogue.
3754771
Nomination for the world of Equestria Girls noted, you ongoing bane of life and hope and happiness. Glad you liked the entry and the details of what lies out beyond the world.
And a world name indeed! Pleased to have stumbled across it, personally. Affa pretty, and suitably 'worldy' as well, if that makes any sense.
I vote for an entry on other immortals, especially if you can delve into wether there have been other alicorns
3754843
Nomination for other immortals and the existence - or lack thereof - of other alicorns noted!
"firmly n its"
"in"?
"the first Fires of Creations"
Ought that to be "Creation", as it was further up?
"powerful ánd chaotic"
...Ought that tone/accent mark to be on that a?
"that it may have calmed"
"might have"?
"and future generations of astronomers - with terrible pattern recognition, it must be said - intrigued"
:)
Very interesting; thanks. :)
Yeah, Magello does great stuff, especially when Ferret pokes him. I got a lovely mad biomancer Lyra the other day. Quite the pleasant surprise.
On a less self-oriented note, fascinating cosmology, especially how the explanation for why phoenixes haven't had the literal population explosion one would expect from immortal pyretic beings. The behavior of magic is especially interesting, given how it seems to exist as a form of exotic energy separate from conventional matter.
And, of course, any mention of star turtles makes me happy.
Have you done the changelings yet? Fairly certain they don't have a nation per se, and it would be interesting to see how they impact geopolitics. If you already have and I just forgot, throw my vote in with the other immortals. I won't subject you to alternate universe quite yet.
Hmm. Have any other magical species tried to assume control of the celestial bodies? The Crown did mention attempting to set its ibexes on the problem when Nightmare Moon returned, but have there been any coordinated/prolonged attempts by others than the unicorns?
I think next maybe an overview of magic itself, or if that would make sense following immortals and deviations therein, go with the immortals first.
Ia! Ia! Cthulthu ftagn! I vote for the Gibbering Horrors beyond Space and Time!
Well, I now know just what best pone did to really deserve banishment. *shudders*
I love creation myths like this that weave magic and mythology with actual astrophysics.
Does Starswirl's mirror exist in some form in this verse? If so: Nomination for the miscellaneous parallel pocket dimensions or whatever they are.
If not: Author's topic roulette (you discussing whatever you want)
3755005
All fixed, and much obliged!
3755006
The changelings have already been covered, so another nomination for the world's immortals noted. Your disinclination to inflict alternate universes on me yet makes you a relative soul of mercy.
Glad you like the star turtles and flailing attempt to reconcile immortal phoenixes with a world that isn't entirely phoenix. And Magello's nae bad at all, yep. That's a good-looking biomancer Lyra over in your own blog.
3755237
Nomination for an overview of magic noted! There's only so much I could ramble on about the deeper underpinnings without making a glaikit spectacle of myself, but an overview of how it's commonly expressed and utilised throughout the world is certainly doable.
The Antlerteans, unicorns, and alicorns are the only known species to have assumed control over the celestial objects, though that certainly hasn't stopped others who are aware of the potential for said control from trying. The Capric Empire certainly made a few attempts, though the inhospitable terrain in which the unicorns originally lived coupled with their ability to outrun larger forces and their ability to stymie smaller forces made these attempts largely just costly wastes of time. The Crown's certainly been exploring ways of usurping control in modern times, thus far to no avail.
3755382
Might have to call the Gibbering Horrors Beyond Space and Time beyond the scope of nomination, alas. There's no fun in the gibbering horrors when they're elaborated upon, after all.
3755432
3755694
Starswirl's mirror and the weird bipedal ape-creatures that dwell past it exist in the setting, and are totally eligible for nomination. Glad you enjoyed the melding of magic and cack-handed astrophysics.
3755697
You could just make a post consisting of "HE RISES" zalgo'd and copy pasted 600 times.
3755700
Fantasy is always more enjoyable when you dab enough science on it to be recognizable, that gives it that genuine "could be real" feeling.
3755694
Ditto on the liking of Astrophysics + Magic.
Nominating EQG again!
Seconding/ thirding the nomination for EQG.
3755844
True. Fantasy with just enough of a meaty backbone is always a nice balance to try and strike.
3755862
Nomination for Equestria Girls noted!
3756282
More nominations for Equestria Girls noted! After all the dust has cleared and the fires have died down, I want it to stand that I blame DannyJ for everything.
I feel this is the best cosmological explanation for how the sun and moon and stars can work in Equestria I've ever seen.
I nominate EqG world as well, I wonder if the Antlereans ever reached it?
3755697
Nonsense, that makes them all the cooler.
Wonderful worldbuilding as always, just enough of a sketch of the tip of the cosmic iceberg to give a glimpse of the looming behemoth beneath. I especially liked the description of the horrors and wonders beyond the stars, although the bit about the giant stars might be pushing disbelief a tad. I mean, sheesh, heliocentric systems, I know this is fantasy and all, but that's a bit unrealistic.
For my vote, I think I'm going to go with the immortals and just plain long-lived.
Some lovely little glimpses of the greater universe here. I once again nominate Equestria Girls, though I do so with some apology.
3757411
Nomination for Equestria Girls and whatever Antlertis might have gotten up to with it noted! Glad you like the cosmology, though I imagine it's essentially identical main fanon. Geocentrism's always been a part of things in the show, after all.
3757607
I dunno. Look at what a bit of exposure can do to even the best Eldritch Horrors.
41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m92y3aqoFf1rabjrqo1_1280.jpg
3757732
Nomination for the immortals and long-lived noted! Glad you like the cosmology as well, and that the outright fantastical stuff like heliocentrism didn't alienate you too much.
3757962
Nomination for Equestria Girls noted! Should you hear a high-pitched wailing from the distant north in the next week or so, safest to assume it's the sound of me trying to come up with neat details and reconcile various elements.
I guess I'll vote for immortals, if only to try and save the author from madness.
I
do kind of want to know what the heck is up with Equestria Girls though... I mean it's not even just an alternate world since there's no way Sunset wasn't an adult by the time we see her in high school, so something weird is up with that place beyond mirror people. Maybe some mage lord was trying for the evil twin universe and gave up upon seeing the doofy mutant monkeys and their bizarre schooling system.
3758688 You would think that, but I have seen a vocal minority try to argue that the Equestria cosmos has a normal-sized Sun zooming around the planet close enough that we see it instantly move when someone casts magic on it (the real sun is 8 minutes away from us by the speed of light) and a normal sized universe, where Luna casually moves around galaxies as part of her arranging the night sky.
3758717 Oh man, I wonder if in EqG world there are strange miniature horses that try and teach humans complex mathematical equations, only to be ignored by the dominant species. I mean, everyone has a double, right?
The common theory I have heard about the EqG world is that time moves more slowly there, about 1 year there for every 4 years in Equestria. So Sunset Shimmer was a teenager when she left, and also she shaved off a few years on her forged birth certificate so she could spend as much time as possible attending CHS and remaining near the portal. By the time 2.5 years had passed for Shimmer, ten years had passed in Equestria.
3758688
Yes, well, that is made by foolish mortals who do not understand what crawls beneath the waves.
3758717
Far too late for that, I'm afraid, though the immortal nomination is noted.
If EqG pulls ahead ... well, I'm sure I can come up with something plausible-ish.
3758759
Huh. Genuinely hadn't come across those takes on the cosmos. Casually shifting around whole galaxies seems really out of step with what we've seen of alicorn power. And having a normal-sized sun whose light travels fast enough to be seen immediately when it's moved around could cause all manner of physics headaches. Unless the wonderful all-encompassing trump-cards of 'Magic, yo' or 'Because Discord' are played.
"Whicker! (Look, I'm writing it down right now! A mechanism for cold fusion! Limitless energy for all of you bipedal twats! Don't ... don't just tie ribbons in my mane! Aren't you listening? WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING?)"
"Aww, look at her, honey. She thinks she's people!"
3758852
This is probably why respectable eldritch horrors haven't actually made contact with us. They'd sooner remain respectable.
3759105
"Oh Applejack! What a silly pony!"
Man I'm really behind in these blogposts. But then again, I'm behind on all my reading. University is a time sink.
3759521
Hang in there. You'll graduate with a fancy degree at the end of the day, and then you'll be able to do clever things like steal time from others. That'll make up for all the time sunk, maybe.
3759671
Fancy degrees!
3760369
Fancy degrees! With bells! And whistles! And letters after your name!
Umm... This still isn't linked from that Palaververse Thing in your profile...
Turtles, you say? Any of those turtles have Company? Some great big elephants, maybe? A Disc to toss around when they get bored?
3766150
Whoops, so it wasn't. Fixed, and cheers for pointing it out.
3766482
Oh, I'm afraid couldn't possibly comment on the pachydermal or circular accessories potentially possessed by such mysterious deep-space chelonians. And by that, I mean 'Heck yeah they do.'
Day 18: Cosmos
- Further blethering is always a worthy pursuit.
- The moon has seas?
- The reason the world can never have nice things is your fault.
- Could Celestia actually look at the sun without damaging her eyes or does she still suffer from that limitation?
- Does Celestia and Luna just set the sun and moon on its path or do they control it the entire time?
- If the sun and moon were actually worlds with life then it would lead to a strange and interesting intersystem dynamic.
- It would be strange if your eyes were always looking at two different things from two different perspectives.
- Hostile pursuit? You make it sound like the sun and moon are fighting each other instead of pursuing each other because of their love (or lack of) like in mythology.
- What are these Fires of Creation you are talking about? If it is like Earth's creation, then they would be locations of past volcanic eruptions and meteoroids crash sites.
- Or maybe the Fires of Creation is just the Big Bang.
- Poor tavern. You will be remembered.
- Academic circles probably have intellectual wars between themselves all the time.
- Phoenixes migrat like ducks. Good to know. Wait. Are solar flares made up of phoenixes or do phoenxies just hop on them for a ride?
- So is Philomena the oldest living phoenix and how powerful is she? Considering that phoenixes in mythology are not creatures you want to mess around with.
- Void whales. Why not? We already have sand whales.
- Astronomy must be pain in the butt to keep track of if Luna keeps changing the location of the stars around all the time.
4464697
- Ain't it just?
- What self-respecting moon wouldn't?
- I think I'm acquiring a harsh and ... well, sort-of-justified reputation here. I love my little creations, and just so happen to express my love via capricious sadism.
- Alicorn eyes are sturdy. She's fine.
- They set them on their paths, and their ongoing will (ideally conscious, though unconsciousness still allows for some momentum to keep them moving) keeps them going onwards. Without the sisters, the sun and moon would come to a stop.
- No doubt there.
- Likewise no doubt.
- It's possibly one of these more acrimonious relationships, in dire need of much counselling. Celestial objects can be so prone to that sort of thing.
- Think the Earth's own primordial volcanic state, except with a lot more wild magic mucking things up, and with a lot of said primal volcanicity still hanging in the rough margins of Theia.
- One led to the other.
- The tavern patrons were mostly okay with it, though they were admittedly very drunk at the time.
- The most vicious and petty of wars, waged with pointedly-worded articles and occasionally swung hooves.
- Phoenixes hop on the flares for a ride, though the numbers of them can pad the flare's mass out a bit.
- She's about as powerful as any bird partially composed of magic-infused fire can be. Not necessarily more powerful than other phoenixes, but long-lived enough to have accrued a substantial amount of cunning.
- Whales. They get everywhere.
- It's a wearying discipline indeed. At least there's always excuses to always keep observing, and justification for being sure of finding new things each time.
I like to think that the moon would also be home to a fair few things like the Ursas Major and Minor. Aquilas and Cygnuses and Capricorns and that.
4772786
It'd be a convenient hosting-ground for all sorts of stellar entities, true!
So the heavens are not so unlike the land after all - clusters of relative hospitability divided by vast wilds.
The peoples of Theia must write some interesting science fiction - both based on hard science and more fanciful models like heliocentrism. One thing they seem to lack, though, is examples of other planets (unless the moon counts?) - nothing as iconic as dusty red Mars or ringed Saturn. I wonder how they imagine them - and what form aliens take in a world of such diverse sapience.
Are there any notable obsolete cosmologies still well-remembered by any of the nations?
What is the furthest up any Theian has ever gone and returned to tell the tale?
5586547
For one thing, a relative lack of adjacent spheres undermines the assumption that other worlds out there are basically globular. For all the astronomers know (and knowing the nonsense magic gets up), maybe the alien system boast celestial objects in all manner of weird and wonderful shapes. Weekly serials in Manehattan relate the adventures of a pegasus space-sailor on the various sides of Cubeworld, while in academic conferences, unicorn scholars try to prove that a double-helix is the natural and eventual shape for all stellar bodies, once gravity and arcane flow are given enough time.
Nightmare Moon got pretty far that one time.
Apart from her, and whoever else Luna might take to the moon for brief expeditions, nothing further than that. Asinia's still not at the stage where it could send up a functioning rocket - but give it a few decades, a few monumental blasts of Cunning, and a few variously-explosive prototypes, and they'll get there eventually.